Atletico Madrid and Bayern Munich dig deep to book place in final 16

By Conor McLaughlin

Antoine Griezmann struck in injury-time to sink Rostov and maintain Atletico Madrid's 100 per cent record in Group D. The Russian visitors had looked poised to bank an unlikely point from their visit to the Vicente Calderon thanks to Serdar Azmoun's goal, which came less than 60 seconds after Griezmann had given the hosts a 29th-minute lead.

Antoine Griezmann struck in injury-time to sink Rostov and maintain Atletico Madrid's 100 per cent record in Group D. The Russian visitors had looked poised to bank an unlikely point from their visit to the Vicente Calderon thanks to Serdar Azmoun's goal, which came less than 60 seconds after Griezmann had given the hosts a 29th-minute lead.

Having bossed possession in their search for a winner, Atletico's place in the last 16 was confirmed when the 25-year-old France international registered his second goal of the evening deep into added time.

That triumph maintained the Spaniards' three-point lead over Bayern Munich, for whom Robert Lewandowski's double earned a comeback success - and guaranteed qualification - against a PSV side who had opened the scoring through Santiago Arias.

In Group B, just one point separates the top three teams after a typically fraught night of action.

Though Ricardo Quaresma looked to have set Besiktas on their way to a late victory over Napoli, the Italians recovered to preserve top spot thanks to Marek Hamsik's equaliser.

Besiktas' failure to see off Napoli was capitalised upon by Benfica, who climbed into second courtesy of Eduardo Salvio's first-half spot-kick - and Junior Moraes' failure to convert for Dinamo Kiev.

Though Arsenal's win against Ludogorets sees them top Group A, they are level with Paris Saint-Germain after Thomas Meunier hit a late winner for Unai Emery's men, who had taken the lead against Basel through Blaise Matuidi only for Luca Zuffi to level.

Belfast Telegraph

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